The Crab

The director of Strange Girls (EIFF 2008) delivers a savage, insightful and thoroughly original modern anti-romance, centred on a dazzling lead performance. Levi (Guy Whitney) is a washed-up academic who uses his genetic disorder - ectrodactyly, or lobster claw syndrome - as an excuse for across-the-board bitterness and rage.

Hope surfaces when he meets sophisticated professor Jane; but Levi's love, like his rage, can err on the side of intensity.